Medill Names Rick Tulsky Director Of New Watchdog/Accountability Initiative
Jan. 27, 2011
Investigative editor and reporter Rick Tulsky is joining Medill as Director of its new watchdog/accountability initiative.
Tulsky, currently Investigations Editor at the San Jose Mercury News, is a Pulitzer-winning journalist with roughly 30 years of experience. At Medill he will lead development of an initiative that will involve students, faculty and local organizations in identifying systemic flaws in government and public institutions and empowering citizens with the kind of knowledge that leads to change.
"I can't imagine a more important or exciting project, and consider myself incredibly lucky for the opportunity to be a part of it," Tulsky said.
"As more and more newspapers, magazines and television stations cut back on their spending for journalism, it is the public good that is threatened. The fact that Medill is creating this Center provides a critical opportunity to accomplish the kind of journalism that society needs, to help create a model for how it can and should be done in the future, and to help guide the next generation of journalists in undertaking such projects."
Tulsky and two Philadelphia Inquirer colleagues won a 1987 Pulitzer for Investigative Reporting for "Disorder in the Courts," which exposed widespread problems in the Philadelphia trial courts. At the Los Angeles Times, he led a team of reporters and interns who identified and followed 9,442 homicide cases in Los Angeles County over a five-year period, analyzing how race, class, and media attention impacted the outcome of murder cases in Los Angeles County. "And Justice For Some" was a Pulitzer finalist in the Public Service category in 1997. His examination of the asylum process, "Uncertain Refuge," published by the San Jose Mercury News in 2001, was a Pulitzer finalist for Investigative Reporting.
A native of the Chicago area, Tulsky has a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri and a J.D. from Temple University.
